


The Library of (Ivy) Alexandria

by WillowWispFlame



Series: So Sings a Song of Slaughter [9]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Gen, Leitner Books (The Magnus Archives), Library, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Slaughter Avatar Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Sleep Deprivation, The Mechanisms Were The Archivist's College Band, The Mechanisms are Gifter's Bone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25647865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowWispFlame/pseuds/WillowWispFlame
Summary: Alex encounters several strange books.In each, a golden bookplate is emblazoned with the words, "From The Library of Jurgen Leitner."
Relationships: Ivy Alexandria & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: So Sings a Song of Slaughter [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775218
Comments: 26
Kudos: 143
Collections: So Sings a Song of Slaughter





	The Library of (Ivy) Alexandria

_ Store any books from the Library of Jurgen Leitner out of reach of the general public _ , the note of instructions for the newest librarian at the Bethnal Green Library read. Alex frowned down at it. The Library of Jurgen Leitner did not ring any bells, although maybe it was some sort of rare private collection. In any case, he would make sure to store them properly. 

As he read through the specific storage instructions for books from this collection, his frown deepened. Store them separately in lead lined boxes and donate them to the Magnus Institute, really. Despite the serious wording of the instructions, Alex became increasingly convinced that he was being pranked. 

He mentioned it off hand while hanging out with the Mechanisms for a jam session that weekend. Everyone was eager to hear about his new job and laugh at the odd things required of him. They would miss having him as their ‘personal librarian’ at the Broad Street Library, but supported him in his move to bigger and better careers. He had not earned his Masters in Library Science for nothing, after all. 

However, as soon as Alex mentioned the name Jurgen Leitner, he noticed Jon go very quiet. 

Afterwards, Jon pulled him aside. Jon was one of those wild types, one never quite knew what absolutely buckwild thing he would do next. Georgie even mentioned that he had insisted on wanting to change his last name to d’Ville at some point. So when Jon became so suddenly serious, Alex paid dreadful attention. “You should heed that warning about Jurgen Leitner’s books,” he said. “Nothing good ever comes out of them.”

[]++++||=======>

The first strange book that Alex came across was a children’s book. It showed up one morning in the drop box with all of the other returns, but showed no signs of belonging to Bethnal Green. There was no  _ Dinosaur Facts and Figures _ book in their system either. He flipped it over, examining the outside for some sign of ownership before checking the inside cover. There, centered in the middle of it, was a fancily molded gold bookplate. Alex set it aside for the moment to continue filing the rest of the returns. He would deal with finding the owner later. Every so often, his gaze would be attracted back to its cover as he scanned barcodes mechanically. 

While he had never been too interested in dinosaurs as a kid, as he was more obsessed with reading copious amounts of chapter books in between his flute lessons during his childhood, the parade of strange creatures marching across the cover held a sort of fascination over him. He had to physically tear his gaze away from it as he pushed the cart of returns out of the back area and into the main stacks. 

Shelving and organizing returns was regretfully a major component of working at a library, especially one as popular as this, but Alex had a system. His secret was that he organized the returns as he scanned them, slipping them into positions vaguely resembling the regions of the library they belonged to. The system was not perfect, as sometimes one or two sections saw a surplus of returns that spilled over to squeeze into the other parts, but it did make shelving the copious amounts of books much easier. 

While reshelving returns in the kids’ section, his last stop with the cart, Alex looked over the selection of dinosaur books they had. They inhabited their own short shelf, perfect for short figures to reach out and grab the colorfully covered books. While there was indeed no copy of  _ Dinosaur Facts and Figures _ , there was no dearth of knowledge related to the subject. If the owner had indeed meant to donate the book, then it would not be without companions. 

After he placed the last return back where it belonged, Alex swept through the kids section, reorganizing misplaced books, as they had been shoved back onto shelves where they didn’t belong. He never held it against the children who visited the library, as they either did not know to place them on the return shelf or were subject to the whims of their guardians. He was simply happy that they were interested in reading and took good care of the lovingly worn books. 

As he returned through the rows of shelves, he made sure to sweep up any more misfiled books, and he sorted those placed on the little metal shelves the library left at the ends of the rows for abandoned books. Given that no more than five books tended to be placed on those shelves, he was finished swiftly. 

Alex pushed the squeaky cart back towards the office, waving at the evening guests that looked up as he passed. He scarcely received responding reactions, a smile or a wave at most, but he appreciated them all the same. He went forward to open the office door and pulled the cart in behind, tucking it into the corner before turning to the desk. 

He blinked at the familiar form sitting facing away from him. One of his coworkers, Alan, was a student worker and had the shift before him. Alex thought that he had already clocked out, but there he was. 

“Hey Alan,” he said. “Holding up with the afternoon shift alright?”

And then Alan spun the chair around. 

The first thing that Alex saw was not the dinosaur fact book clutched in his coworker’s hand. No, the first thing he came face to face with was a scale and feather and toothy face. He jolted backward, stumbling against the cart trying to back away as quickly as possible. 

He blinked a couple times, and rubbed at his eyes with his fists as he tried to figure out what he was seeing. Alan’s body was still there, clutching the arm of the chair and the thin volume. The back of his head was normal, hair framing him like a halo, but where his face was supposed to be was the long, thick snout of a dinosaur.  _ Some sort of carnivorous one _ , he thought, eyeing the sharp teeth.

It was hyper realistic, but Alex could have never mistaken it for a mask. The muscles in the face were moving too realistically, even draped in small scales and feathers as they were. Slitted yellow eyes opened and closed with a transparent membrane preluding an eyelid. The mouth opened and closed pitifully, allowing Alex a view into his coworker’s throat. 

“Alan?” Alex asked, finally working past the lump in his throat.

The creature made a pitiful sound then, something high-pitched and distressed spawning from the back of Alan’s throat. He attempted to gesture with the hand clutching the kids’ book, and Alex finally made the connection between the golden bookplate and the instructions he had been given back when he had started working here. _From The Library of Jurgen Leitner._ The nameplate had said it was from Leitner’s Library. 

Snatching up a handful of tissues from the box on the desk, he carefully reached forward and tugged the book from Alan’s grip. He immediately turned and dropped it into a bin, and then tied the bag around it. They were as safe as they could be from it in the moment. He turned back to Alan, who was gripping his narrow snout in distress. 

They sat in the backroom office for hours, waiting and watching as Alan’s face slowly returned to normal. Halfway through the night, as Alex comforted the younger man as he sobbed in pain and dismay as his bones shifted, he considered telling his coworker about his own curse. About the melodies that swam so sweetly through his mind as he slept, about the horrible, awful thing that Ivy Alexandria was made to become. 

No. He’d better not. Another time, maybe.

In the end, as the sun rose, Alan was left with the slightest of marks from his experience. His dentist would probably have nightmares, but otherwise he was okay. 

Alex did not know what to do with the book. Obviously he couldn’t leave it here or in the trash for someone to find and read. The faintest idea of a child finding and reading it chilled Alex to the bone. Alan, stumbling over his words as he talked around his newly pointed teeth, explained that he had opened the book to a random page and read only a small passage. Who knew how much and for how long someone who read more would transform? Alex did not want to find out.

[]++++||=======>

The second book that Alex encountered was more insidious than the last. 

He was called to the front desk from his work preparing an older book recently donated to the library for preservation. Standing there was a woman who looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. Purple bags ran under her eyes, stark even against her dark skin. She leaned heavily on the counter, like she was about to fall asleep then and there. 

“How can I help you, ma’am?” Alex ventured, wondering if he should offer to let her take a nap in one of their study rooms. 

She coughed, clearing her throat, and then said in a voice that creaked like it had never been used within the last year, “I need you to find the author of this book.” 

“Yes, of course,” he said, and eyed the thing. 

It sat innocuously on the wood, he had not noticed it until she pointed it out. He turned it around on the desk and picked it up, examining it from all angles. It was bound in blue-dyed leather, beautifully detailed down the spine with silver-coloured etchings. The back was blank, but the front was emblazoned with a single word in block letters, “Biography.” It reminded him somewhat of some fancy dictionaries he’d come across. Its pages gave it a depth of a few centimeters, thick pages which clung together as he ran the pad of his thumb down the side. 

He flipped open the front cover and froze as he saw the familiar golden bookplate of the Library of Jurgen Leitner. He quickly snapped it closed and flinched his hands away from it. His eyes unconsciously went up to see the reaction of the woman. He still didn’t know her name.

Somehow, she just looked more tired than before. “So, you’ve come across books like this one before then?”

“Just one,” Alex said, diving into the drawers and pulling out a pair of latex gloves. “Did you read it?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I did. I figure you don’t need to find an author for me then. Can you get rid of it for me? Somehow? Please?”

Alex nodded sharply. He had taken the dinosaur fact book, he could handle another. He pulled a sheet of thick brown paper out from a drawer and used it to cover over the book, measuring out the length he would need. When he noticed her watching, he gestured for her to grab a seat. 

She pulled one over, and sat heavily in it. 

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Alex started as he began wrapping the book in layer after layer of stiffly folded paper. “Did anything happen? What was the book about?”

Her eyes went down. “Like the title infers,” she started. “It’s a biography. About me,” she swallowed thickly. “I don’t think it was always about me,” she hurriedly explained. “That book is, it’s wrong. I think that it is the biography of whoever reads it.” She passed a hand over her hair, pressing down the fraying tips. “I started reading, and. And I couldn’t stop myself from continuing. I took breaks, moments to reread and set it aside, but I couldn’t help but return. I read my childhood, about how my parents raised me, about how I was bullied in school. I read about every relationship I’d ever had, friends and family and lovers all. Somehow, the author, if there even is one, knew everything about me. Like the book was reading me instead of the other way around. I got as far as present day,” she stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. “I couldn’t keep going. I didn’t want to know if it was right about my future. The book wasn’t over, it wanted me to keep reading, so I started from the beginning again. I was caught in a loop, and with every reread I got further as I read about myself reading and starting over and reading again. Eventually I got tired, and I read ah- so I came here. I figured if anyone could find the author so I could give them a piece of my mind, it would be you folks.”

Alex shivered. He didn’t like the implications that she might have read this exact exchange happening. “I’ll take it off of your hands,” he offered. “You’ll never have to see it again, and you won’t be tempted to read more.”

“Thank you,” she said. Some of the exhaustion in her eyes seemed to melt away.

[]++++||=======>

Eventually, Alex started to have a small collection of these strange books. They were harmless enough, as long as he did not try to read them, and seemed to behave themselves in his presence. The third addition to the number, a copy of  _ Pride and Prejudice  _ whose interior had apparently been spliced with a math textbook, caused strange hallucinations for whoever even looked at the cover, much less the contents. Alex was able to handle and wrap it for at least a minute until the world had started to be composed of numbers and equations. 

Alex didn’t know what to do with the books. For now, he kept them wrapped in heavy brown paper on their own shelf in his home. He was scared of moving them, scared of looking at them and having them spontaneously gain additional powers. 

He didn’t like that Jon knew about Jurgen Leitner before him. It implied that Jon was like Alan and the woman who came to him in distress. A victim of yet another evil, cursed book. 

Alex especially hated Jurgen Leitner. That name was the only connection between these books, and the fact that there was an entire Library meant that there were far more of these books out there. Waiting to be read. Waiting to curse others. 

So Alex held on to the books. The world was safer from them with the books tightly bound and secured away. 

A fourth book joined his collection. His burgeoning library. 


End file.
